The following brief overview of Jewish Music forms part
of a World Music curriculum unit which was created by the author in tandem
with the Learning Resource Center of the Britannia Secondary School in
Vancouver, Canada. The author welcomes comments and queries from all
interested readers, in the hopes of expanding upon the ideas put forward
here (please mail to our Tzimmes
address.). These materials also serve as a springboard for a Tzimmes
workshop entitled The
Many Faces of Jewish Music.

The Jewish people and their music have their roots in the
Middle East, specifically in the land of Israel, and their branches
everywhere. They have lived, for over 2000 years, amongst many cultures,
both Eastern and Western - from Iran to Israel, to the Western Mediterranean
and North Africa, to Europe, and most recently, the Americas.

Thus, there is a unique property of Jewish music that
defies geographical location. This property can be called inter-cultural
synthesis.

For millenia, Jews have been global wanderers; from the
beginning of the common era, about 2000 years ago, until quite recently,
they have lived amidst many cultures not their own. To preserve their
identity, in a sea of foreign culture, Jewish people have always deemed it
wiser to incorporate foreign cultural elements into the Jewish mainstream
than to resist all outer influence absolutely.

Thus, to a large degree, Jewish Music is a cross-cultural phenomenon, the music of the wanderer. Undoubtedly, certain Jewish ritual
musical forms have their sources in antiquity, but the idea of creative
adaptation has been a hallmark of Jewish musical life for a very long time;
thus, Jewish Music has many faces.

To place Jewish Music in its root context, a brief
outline of Middle Eastern Music follows.

Music of the Middle East generally belongs to the modal,
or melodic traditions of music. Here harmony, as it
has been practiced in the Western World, is not emphasized. Rather, melodic
intricacy and ornamentation, including 1/4 tones, and rigorous rhythmic
development - these are the salient features. It should be noted that today,
in popular forms, Western style harmony can also be heard; but the source
traditions of music have rarely borrowed Western harmony.

The functions of music in the Middle East can be
described as follows:

Music as a Religious Vehicle - This includes the music of communal worship (in Mosque,
Synagogue, and Church), and the music of mystic ritual (Sufis, Hassidim, and others).

Music as a Celebratory Vehicle - This is music of both a popular and religious nature
played at life passage events (Weddings, Bar-Mitzvas, Bat-Mitzvas, Anniversaries, etc.).

Music as Art/Entertainment - This includes classical and popular forms, both instrumental and vocal
music. It also includes certain dance forms such as belly dancing and
folk dancing in general.

We can describe Jewish Music as having three distinct
streams. One is the Ashkenazi, or Western stream. This includes Klezmer,
and is music originating in Eastern Europe and extending to the rest of
Europe and the Americas.

The second stream is the Sephardi, which refers
to Mediterranean cultural sources, including Spain, Portugal, North Africa,
Greece, and Turkey.

The third stream is the Mizrahi, literally
Eastern, and refers to the music of Jewish people who resided over the
centuries amidst Arabic cultures.

Of course these three streams are not completely
separate, but do in fact intersect in many places (see diagram 1 below).

The music that originated in Eastern Europe (the Balkans,
Romania, Bulgaria, among others) and moved westward and northward throughout
Europe and later into North America, belongs to the Ashkenazi tradition. It
includes Klezmer music. 'Klezmer' means 'instruments of song', from
the Hebrew words 'klei zemer'. It has come to denote the musician
himself, thus incorporating a point of view that regards the musician as the
vehicle or instrument of a higher source. 'Ashkenazi' refers to Jews who in
the 9th century began to settle along the banks of the Rhine. Since these
Jews are the forebears of much of European and Western Jewry, 'Ashkenazi'
today refers to Jewish people of the Western World, or even more to the
point, Jews of a Western cultural orientation.

Other than Hebrew - the tongue of the Bible - the
language of speech and song is mainly Yiddish (Judeo-German);
nowadays, English and other local languages have come to play a large role
in Jewish Music of the Ashkenazi stream.

Yiddish - Beginning
as an offshoot of Medieval German in the 10th century, Yiddish developed as
a unique hybrid of German, Hebrew, and whatever other languages Jewish
people spoke in the various countries where they dwelled. Thus, there are
Slavic, Polish, and many other words in Yiddish.

This stream refers to music that originated around the
Mediterranean, from Spain and North Africa to Turkey and Greece. 'Sephardi'
literally means Spanish, and alludes to the fact that until the Spanish
expulsion of all non-Christians in 1492, a very fruitful Jewish culture
existed in Spain; when these Jewish communities were expelled they migrated
to places all around the Mediterranean basin - Morocco, Egypt, Turkey,
Greece, etc. They took with them a 15th century version of Spanish called Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). Much musical repertoire is in this language. The
interaction between these peoples and the communities in the countries where
they lived, gave rise to a cultural expression that incorporates many
melodic and rhythmic elements of the Mediterranean.

Ladino - Ladino is a
form of Spanish, ca. 15th century, which emigrated with the Jewish people
upon their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Over the centuries it has
integrated many Hebrew words as well as words from the various tongues
spoken where these Jews made their homes.

The music of Eastern Jews, from the Eastern Mediterranean
and eastward into Asia can be designated as the Mizrahi stream of Jewish
Music. 'Mizrahi' literally means 'Eastern'; this music is the child of the
interaction between Jewish people and the cultures of Arabia, Turkey, and
Persia. Generally, this encompasses the following countries: Israel, Egypt,
Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and as far east as India. In song, the
main language used is Hebrew; local languages have also been used, most
notably, Arabic.

In current parlance the terms Sephardi and Mizrahi are
often used interchangeably. The reasons for this are as follows: firstly, so
many Jews who lived around the Mediterranean (Sephardim) over the centuries
share many cultural traits with their more easterly counterparts (Mizrahi-yim),
including the Arabo-Turko-Persian musical tradition.

Secondly, and significantly, in Israel today there are
two major religious delineations, each represented by a distinct Rabbinate
and liturgy - the Sephardi and the Ashkenazi. The
membership of the Sephardi religious community includes most, if not all,
non-Ashkenazim. This makes sense, since over the centuries the Sephardi and
Mizrahi Rabbinates were connected much more intimately with each other than
either was connected with the Ashkenazi. This has especially been true in
more modern times as the Ashkenazi communities moved more and more northward
and westward.

Thus, Mizrahi and Sephardi have been taken up as terms
that are meant to imply one another.

However, in order to learn something about the sources of
Jewish musical culture, placing Sephardi and Mizrahi together in one basket
leaves much to be desired. The Mizrahi element is much more involved with
non-Western modes, instruments, and forms of expression; it also has no
inherent connection with Ladino. The Sephardi
tradition is somewhat of a bridge between the Mizrahi and the Ashkenazi - it
has some connection both with Eastern and Western forms of musical
expression, as one might expect from a culture sprung up on the shores of
the Mediterranean.

Jewish Music - Devotional and
Secular

As mapped out in diagram 2 below, Jewish Music can be
classified as either devotional or secular, depending on its content and
function.

Music for Synagogue Worship - Included in this category is the art of the Cantor (in Hebrew: Hazan), who utilizes specific modes and melodies,
and the art of Biblical cantillation, with
its ancient tradition of neumes and modal
chanting.

Other Religious Music -
Melodies utilized to heighten devotional fervour, especially the
melodies of the Hassidim; also, religious
poetry, sung in the Synagogue or at home.

One of the main features of Devotional Music, especially
when utilized in Synagogue ritual on the Sabbath and
other holy days, is that it is almost entirely Vocal. Though today, in
certain Jewish denominations, accompanying instruments such as the Organ are
utilized in worship, the emphasis on congregational song and the art of the Hazan has always been, and still is, paramount.

The one salient exception to this is an instrument called
the Shofar, a ram's horn which is sounded on the High
Holidays (the Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement - Rosh
Hashana and Yom Kippur, respectively), as a
special call to prayer and repentance.

This is music played at life passage events: Weddings, Bar-Mitzvas, Bat-Mitzvas, and other communal celebrations. Both
instruments and voice are utilized in this music. It can be very rhythmic
and have popular, even romantic texts. One may include in this category all
Jewish Folk and Popular Music whose context lies outside the religious
domain.

Between the two categories there may be some exchange.
For example, devotional texts are often utilized for songs sung and played
in a more secular setting. On the other hand, tunes from a secular source,
sometimes from the music of the surrounding non-Jewish culture, find their
way into the Synagogue. Many secular tunes have been set to traditional
texts and used in the act of worship.

The interface, as it were, between these two spheres, is
the Congregational Song (see diagram 2 below). These are the songs and
melodies that perform a dual function - they can be heard both at worship
services and at general celebratory events.

These two categories of Jewish musical expression apply,
with variations, to Jewish communities everywhere, be they Ashkenazi,
Sephardi, or Mizrahi.

To summarize, Jewish Music is typified by cultural
diversity, and draws upon the resources of the many cultures in which Jewish
people have lived. The uniqueness of Jewish Music is to be found in the way
Jewish musicians have integrated outer influences and new ideas into their
traditional framework. Thus Jewish Music is innovative, vibrant, adaptive,
and many sided, and yet rests upon a firm foundation of shared religious and
communal experience.

The leader of prayer in a Synagogue;
traditionally, only men lead the prayers, but today, in many
denominations, women also perform this function. The Hazan must have a
good clear voice and know how to recite the prayers utilizing the
traditional modes of prayer.

The holiest days of the year in Judaism; they include Rosh Hashana
(the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur(the Day of Atonement). These days
fall around September/ October time - the variability is due to the fact
that the Jewish calendar is tied to the lunar rather than solar cycle.

A melodic structure, like a scale of notes, with prescribed note
patterns and methods of performance. A mode carries with it a specific
feeling or mood, and may become associated with specific prayers and
ritual occasions.

In Biblical cantillation these are notational signs, also known as
'Biblical accents'. Each sign represents a pre-set melodic figure,
sometimes a single note and sometimes groups of two, three, or more
notes.

A Jewish holy day of rest, occuring once a week, beginning at sundown
on Friday and ending Saturday at nightfall. On this day Jews refrain
from work and go to the Synagogue, where special prayers are recited and
special rituals are performed.

A language of Ashkenazi Jews, related to
Medieval High German (ca. 10th century). It has evolved over many
centuries, incorporating words and grammatical elements from many
languages, including many Hebrew words. It is also sometimes called
Judeo-German.

Synagogue Song in America
by Joseph A. Levine. White Cliffs Media Co., Crown Point, IN, 1989.A scholarly work with accompanying cassettes; an excellent primer on
the traditional music of the Synagogue.

The author does not object to the use of these materials
for personal educational purposes or for any fair use, such as quoting or
citing these materials, as long as his authorship is credited by the user.
Making copies of these materials as part of any commercial venture, or for
any monetary reward, requires the written consent of the author. All
reasonable requests will be honoured.